Coming and Going

 There have been a lot of changes the past 2 weeks. We are excited that several new senior missionary couples have come. Elder and Sister Schultz arrived this past week and they will be taking over for us in the mission office. They are from Springville and have 4 children. One of their daughters lives in Anchorage so they are living with their family while they serve their mission. That is really nice for them. Sister Schultz is a retired RN who will serve as Mission Health Advisor. Elder Schultz is a retired mortician and will be taking care of housing. They both have very calm, pleasant personalities and will be perfect for their jobs. We have spent the past week helping them get oriented. This coming week we will be packing and getting ready to leave so we will not be in the office as much, but will be available if they have questions. I am glad we will have some free time to get ready to come home. 

    

Sister Dekay is a service missionary who has helped a lot in the office. She will be released from her mission on March 1. She was so helpful in organizing and decluttering the office. Whatever we would ask her to help with she always had good ideas and could get it done quickly. She lives in Eagle River about 30 minutes from the office. No matter what the weather she was always there. She is an excellent driver in any condition. She always had a big smile too.

Elder and Sister Bowman arrived this week too. They will be serving in Soldotna for 6 months as Member/Leader Support missionaries. They are from Draper now but used to live in Dr. Crump's ward (I worked with Dr. Crump for over 13 years). I'm not sure how Sister Bowman made that connection. I was very surprised. It is a small world! Elder Bowman is a retired dentist and served as a mission president in Macon, Georgia about 10 years ago. They are the most outgoing, happy, helpful, full-of-energy people I have met. This is their first time in Alaska and they are so excited to be here. 

They have 5 children--a daughter in Georgia, one in Hawaii and 3 in Utah. 

Soldotna is about 3 hours from Anchorage. We drove down to get the apartment set up about an hour before Elder and Sister Bowman arrived. The missionaries in Soldotna all came to help. There has been a lot of rain, snow and ice and we discovered the carpet was wet from a leak in the foundation (sitting on the carpet was a good clue). The apartment had been vacant for a week and nobody had found the leak until we arrived. They are getting new carpet but it has not been the kind of welcome we had hoped to give them. The Bowmans have been so helpful taking care of everything and getting the apartment finished. 

We are so grateful for their help in taking care of the apartment. 

You can see how much the snow has melted in the past week. It has felt more like April than February. The hard part is that it is melting and freezing and causing very icy driving conditions. Driving home we saw several wrecks in just 10 minutes. There have been 17 accidents (no injuries) with missionary cars since the first of the year. Last year there was a total of 9. So glad Elder Robinson isn't over vehicles. Although he has had his share of apartment repairs and heat and water problems.

 

We had to get some items from the storage units this week and they had just plowed the snow. We have one unit on this side of the snow bank and one on the other side. The one was frozen shut and we had to chip away the ice to get in. There was a layer of ice on top of melted water. When we got out it was so slippery and you could hear the ice crack and pop. It reminded me of being on a lake before the ice breaks and you fall in. But it was only a puddle underneath. It was an eerie sensation though. The picture doesn't show the bubbles of water underneath very well. I was glad we didn't slip and fall either. 

This is the parking lot at the mission office. The snow is so heavy with water that they have to scoop and lift it off the parking surface. It is so icy underneath. 

Sister Wright and Sister Ireland stopped by the office after helping the organizers of the Iditarod. The missionaries help box up supplies needed along the route that are then shipped to the checkpoints. It is a very big and fun service community service project. The missionaries all receive official Iditarod hats for helping. It is a very nice souvenir to have. 

For Valentines Day we went to the Double Musky Restaurant in Girdwood. It is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Alaska. It is very good for a restaurant in Alaska. Very quirky decor. It is Cajun style  food with an Alaskan twist. Imagine that! Kate recommended it and I'm glad she did. We had steak and prime rib with their signature jalapeno bread. We also had their popular French Pepper Steak Tips. Normally we celebrate Valentines Day at home to avoid the crowds. It was a lot of fun!   

We went to Wild Scoops for ice cream too for Valentines Day. They serve ice cream cones Baked Alaska style. They put marshmallow cream on top and toast it with a torch. It tasted like a burned marshmallow but with the cone it was like a S'more too. Fun idea. Elder Robinson gave me a very pretty necklace and I gave him frozen chocolate strawberries. It was a very fun day together.  

After dinner we drove around Girdwood. The Girdwood branch of the church meets in the Catholic Church. They share the costs and it works quite well. It is a very pretty church inside (and outside). There are about 5 families that meet there in the winter, more in the summer. 

It was fun to see the lights on the ski run and all of the snow on the roofs. They get an average of 741 inches of snow a year in Girdwood. There have been quite a few avalanches the past 2 weeks and the road has been closed off and on. I didn't get a picture of the avalanches but the ice is melting on the Turnagain Arm and it looks like black icebergs floating in the water. It looks different every time we drive by. 

We always notice the pretty blue sky and interesting clouds too. 

Elder Robinson likes to keep track of the Moose Crash signs. This is the sign on the Kenai Peninsula with 201. The road to Wasilla has 214 moose crashes. That is a lot of moose on the road. The other day Elder Robinson was driving by the mission office with Elder Schultz and they saw a large moose and a yearling moose keeping pace with them walking along the side of the road. At the intersection the moose looked across the road before crossing in front of them. City moose know what they are doing. 

Spiritual Thought: The past few weeks have brought a lot of different emotions. Some of you may know that Sister King has a serious health problem and she and President King are in Salt Lake City so she can get treatment at the Huntsman Cancer Center. She has been getting tests and they hope to know more this coming week about what lies ahead. The Assistants to the President have been working closely with the President and he is able to do a lot of the work for the mission by Zoom. He has counselors in the Mission Presidency who are able to help as well. We still really miss them and are praying for their welfare, especially Sister King. They have been such good friends and it has been a special blessing to serve a mission with them. It has also been hard thinking about the life changes in getting ready to come home. We are excited to see family and friends again but also will miss so many things about serving as missionaries. There have been a lot of unexpected blessings and challenges. One of the hardest things is having to say goodbye. Our lives are so much richer for the people and experiences we have had here. President King tells the missionaries they have 18-24 months to serve and a lifetime to remember what they did. We are grateful for the memories we have made. It may take some time to realize all that it has meant to be here. For all of the experiences I have thought a lot about Elder Wirthlin's talk, "Come What May and Love It". Regardless of where we are there are beautiful things to see, family and friends to love, joy in serving others and happiness in learning something new each day. We are grateful for learning more about feeling the Spirit each day and acting on the promptings of the Spirit. Life can be good wherever you are if you are trying each day to be a little better and come closer to Christ in your life. One of my favorite scriptures is in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid". Although there is change and turmoil around us, I am grateful for peace in Christ.

We love you and are excited to see you soon.

Have a very good week. I know we will.

Love,

Elder and Sister Robinson